The importance of customer service is that customers care about

whether your business treats them well. You may have fabulous
products at great prices, but if your frontline employees are rude or
unhelpful, 68% of customers say that's a deal breaker. If your customer
service and quality are top notch, you're much more likely to win their
return business.

What Is Customer Service?

Customer service includes all of your company's interactions with your
customers and clients. This includes the sales clerk who directs them to the right
part of the store or digs the item they want out of the storeroom, the receptionist
who doesn't put them on hold forever and the help desk that explains how to make
the app work properly.

Fifty years ago, customer service was a matter of phone, letters and in-person
conversations. Now, it often involves email, text, social media and your website as
well. Customer service quality should be consistently good no matter how
customers connect with you.

The Importance of Service Quality

The importance of service quality isn't only demonstrated by the loss of customers
if the quality is subpar. Getting customer service rights offers gains for your
business as well:

 It increases sales. Good service can prompt customers to spend more than they'd
planned. On top of that, satisfied customers are more likely to buy from you again.
 
 Good customer service saves money. Retaining established customers is cheaper
and more cost effective than attracting new ones.

 It reduces barriers to buying. If you're known to stand by your return policy,

customers can feel safe purchasing something they're not sure will work for them.

 Customer service generates positive word-of-mouth and person-to-person

recommendations.

 It improves the way people see your company, which boosts your reputation and
your brand.
 Most employees prefer working for a company that treats customers well to one
that belittles or defrauds them.

 It helps you stay in business by keeping customers coming in the door.

 If customers have a complaint, solving their problem can impress them and turn
them into return customers.

Providing Excellent Customer Service: Examples

The specific details of customer service and quality vary among businesses.
Restaurant diners expect lots of attention from the wait staff, while retail shoppers
sometimes want to be left alone to browse. IT companies need to staff a help desk,
but food trucks don't. However, some principles are consistent across the board:

 Treat your customers respectfully. Keep your cool even if their requests are
unreasonable, such as if they want cash returns without a receipt, and the store doesn't
allow it, for instance.

 Understand your customers' wants and needs. If they're not sure what they need,
help them figure it out. Shoppers buying new tech, for instance, may need help selecting
the right model. Customers looking for a specific book may not remember anything beyond
"it has a red cover."

 Listen to your customers when they have a request or a question. Be honest if you
don't know the answer and then get to work finding what they need to know.

 Know your products or services well. If you and your team don't understand the ins
and outs of your new software, it's hard to explain it to customers.

 Handle complaints and returns gracefully.

 Make every customer process at your business as quick and smooth as possible,
whether it's making a deposit or trying on a new suit.

 If your customers give you feedback about their experience, learn from it. Find
ways to improve next time.

Customer Service Tips

It's important that your customer service employees translate the general
guidelines into specifics suitable for your industry. If you're running a brick-and-
mortar store, for instance, customer service tips include:

 Greet customers when they enter the store and ask if they need any help.

 Acknowledge customers on the sales floor even if you're in the middle of stocking
shelves.
 If your customers have to wait for service, acknowledge them and let them know
how long the wait is.

 Check in with browsing customers occasionally and ask if they're finding everything
they need. If they don't want help, leave them alone.

If your team staffs a call center or otherwise deals with customers over the phone,
they need a different set of customer service tips:

 Listen to the customers. Let them talk without interruption, ask questions if
necessary and double check that you understand what they want.

 Ask questions rather than state demands.

 Be polite. Say please and thank you and address the customer by name.

 If the customers have to make a decision, explain the choices clearly. Highlight the
pros and cons of the different alternatives.

 Don't use jargon if there's a simple alternative way to phrase it.

 If you have to transfer the customer to someone else, explain why and don't leave
him sitting on hold for long stretches.

Resolving Customer Complaints

The importance of service quality is never greater than when customers are
dissatisfied. If they stay dissatisfied, it can cost you a customer. They may also be
in a bad mood when they report their complaints, so employees have to keep their
cool while dealing with a customer who is losing hers.

 Listen and understand. It's more important to resolve the problem correctly than to
resolve it quickly.

 If the company screwed up, apologize. A spoken apology makes customers want to
forgive you more than if you fix the problem but don't say you're sorry.

 Find a solution. If you can't give them the solution for which they asked, look for an
alternative. If, say, you can't give a cash refund without a receipt, offer them a
merchandise exchange instead.

 Follow up with the customers to confirm that everything was resolved to their
satisfaction.

The process will flow smoother if you give the frontline personnel the authority to
make decisions and resolve problems without escalating it to their supervisor. If
they do have to escalate, it shouldn't turn into a game of hot potato where the
customer gets passed from one supervisor to another.

Improve Customer Service Quality

 Given the importance of service quality, keeping the quality high should be a
continual process. Have regular training sessions. Listen to customer feedback
about their experience.

Dissatisfied customers often just quit coming, so don't use customer complaints to
your company as the only metric. Search online and see what customers say when
they're talking to other people.

 Keep an eye on social media. Is your customer service receiving negative reviews
on Twitter or Facebook?

 What do online review sites such as Yelp or Google My Business have to say?

 Do search engines turn up negative reviews?

It may be impossible to keep every customer happy, but if you see a persistent
pattern to the reviews or comments, that may indicate a problem that needs fixing.
Possibly, your staff training is off, or company policy doesn't meet the customers'
needs. It may be that the real issue is something wrong with your products that
your help desk can't resolve.